Sub-Subject: Response on Self-Organizing Classes
Bobbie Turniansky respond to my e mail, expressing interest in further
details on self-organization in the classroom, particularly in the field
of organizational development.
Dear Bobbie,
Thanks for responding to my e mail. I'd love to begin a dialogue with you
(and others) on applying learning organization principles and concepts in
the classroom. My recent excursions have been into the domain of chaos
theory, particularly in self-organization (not that these are
traditionally components of learning organization that I know of), with
the underlying intent to foster self-direction and empowerment.
Clearly, one of the biggest misconceptions and areas of ambiguity today is
empowerment and how one brings it about. I am campaigning to eliminate
the notion that empowerment is something that is given. Though it may
come about naturally and painlessly in some evolutionary self-organizing
way, it is most typically a frustrating and excruciating process both for
those who would be empowered and those who would empower. Empowerment is
something which is earned. It is something which has to come to be
desired and something which depends heavily on personal confidence and
competence (and in my case, at least, on mutual trust, interdependence.
and collaboration).
My classes, painful as they are, are educating future leaders and myself
in charting a course through and around the barriers to empowerment. A
key integrating concept and approach has been incorporating learning to
learn and fostering greater involvement in the design and conduct of one's
own learning and a greater sense of responsibility for the process.
Again, there seem to be a number of individuals interested in forming some
type of interest group, and there may be value in coming up with a vehicle
to facilitate this end.
Thanks for your interest!
-- Joe Hays hays@volpe1.dot.gov